Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it
by GilbertShepard
Summary: A Hetalia AU story set during World War II. Warning- This story does contain Yaoi.


The sun was just coming up over the horizon as Arthur Kirkland walked back up the flight of stairs to his flat overlooking St. James Park. He opened the front door to his flat, and went into the kitchen; he did not get any sleep last night and it was going to be another long day. He put a kettle with some water on the stove for tea, then headed off to the bathroom to wash up and get ready for work.

After he finished washing up, he put on fresh clothes, and walked to the kitchen. He took the kettle of boiling water off the stove and he made himself some tea. He grabbed some bread out of the cupboard, and took that and the tea into his drawing room. He sat down at his table by the widow, and looked out over the city.

As Arthur looked out the window, he saw the sun coming up over the horizon, it created a beautiful cascade of colors and it looked like it was going to be another great day. But, the brilliance of the morning's first light was dampened by the devastation of the city, wrought by the previous night's air raids by the Germans. He could see dozen of new craters covering St. James Park, as well as the remains of ruined buildings all around his house.

Somehow his building had managed to survive another night of bombing; it was a miracle considering almost all of the buildings around his were destroyed. Arthur knew that it was only a matter of time before the Germans hit his building too. As he sipped his tea he thought, maybe it would be better if he did move back home to his parents old manor in the countryside, or even up to his aunt's house in the Scottish lowlands.

But, he did not want to leave the city if he could help it, he still had work to do in London; he wanted to stay and help the people of the city who had no choice but to live through these bombings every night. Despite what others said even if he did not fight in the war, he could still do his part for his country in its darkest hour.

After he had finished his breakfast, he went back into the kitchen, washed his cup. It was now almost 7:00 o'clock in the morning, so he grabbed his bag, put on his cloak, and headed out the front door. It was a cool English autumn day; if the situation had been different it would have been a perfect day. There was a bright blue sky, the leaves in the park were just starting to change colors and there was a slight nip in the air.

However, just one look around and anyone could see that it was not a normal day; and Arthur knew this better than most people in the city. Arthur was twenty six year old doctor at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He had been working there since he graduated from medical school a few years back, but once the bombings started he began to see the horror that this war had inflicted on the people first hand, even if he was not in the army.

And that was where he was heading today, to put in another day helping the victims of the bombings. Every day there were new victims of the bombing raids; people who had done nothing other than try to live their lives in peace. He felt horrible that these men, women, and child had to live in constant fear of the German attacks. After the war started many of the doctors joined the army, which was not a problem until the bombings started; however since the start of the bombing the hospital had been severely understaffed.

As he walked out his front door and through the rumble of the nearby ruined houses, he saw a poster that said "Keep Calm and Carry On" buried in a mountain of bricks; the irony was not lost on him. But despite this when he looked around he did see people going about their daily lives. There was a milkman doing his rounds, a postman delivering the mail, and a young boy standing on the corner selling the Daily Mail.

It always amazed Arthur about the resilience of the people who lived in the city; they had been bombed all night, yet here they were going about their lives like nothing had happened. This was why he was sure that no matter how bad it got they were going to win the war; the strength of the British people could never be overcome by the fear and terror that the Germans tried to inflict on them with their bombing runs.

As Arthur approached the main road he heard the boy on the corner yelling out. "Daily Mail Newspaper, get you Daily Mail Newspaper, just one penny. Headline: The Italians have advanced to Maktila." Arthur walked over to the boy, and gave the boy two pennies. The boy thanked him, and Arthur opened the paper and continued his walk to work. The Italians were continuing to advance in Egypt; and it seemed like nothing the British Army could do to stop them.

By the time that he got to St Bartholomew's Hospital he had finished the cover stories. He stopped at the entrance, folded up the paper, tucked it into his pocket and opened the doors. When he entered the hospital the sights and smells of that place assaulted his senses. But, after several months of working with the victims of the bombing he had sadly gotten used to it. As he made his way through the hospital several of the doctors and nurses came up to him to give him an update on his patients.

When he finally made it to his office, he pulled out his key and opened the door. He put his paper down on the chair in his office, took off his coat, and put on his lab coat. He also shifted through the huge pile of patient charts, reports, and other papers on his desk until he found his clip board and pen.

Once he was ready he left his office, shut the door, and locked it back up; he knew from experience that he was not going to get a chance to come back to his office today. He headed back down the halls of the hospital to do his rounds, and check in on his patients. But, before he could start his rounds he saw a teenage boy lying in one of the beds, he looked like he was in bad shape. He had cuts and lacerations all over his body, and his left arm just hung limply at his side.

Arthur decided to stop and see if the boy was getting medical attention. He walked over to the bed, and closed the curtain. The boy opened his eyes, and looked up at him. Arthur walked over next to him, as the boy sat up in his bed.

"It is fine, just lay down, is someone taking care of you?"

As the boy looked up at him Arthur finally got a good look at him. The boy looked to be about eighteen with dirty blonde, almost brown, messy hair and bright blues eyes. He was a mess, his clothes were ripped and he had cuts and scrapes all up and down his arms and legs.

The boy shook his head, "No, I told them to go help other people first; it really is not that bad. There are a lot of people here who are a lot worse off than I am."

Arthur was amazed, this boy was so selfless even if the face of these injuries, which given his medical training, Arthur knew where no minor at all. "Well, how about I take a look at you; and don't worry you are not taking me away from anyone else, I am not even supposed to be here yet. Is this okay with you?"

The boy nodded, and Arthur began. First, he looked at the boy's arm, as bad as it seemed the break was clean. That combined with his age Arthur was fairly sure that it would heal fine on its own, as long as he didn't move it around. So, Arthur set the break, then turned his attention to the cuts and scrapes. These were not too bad; most of them were minor.

Arthur took some disinfect, and bandages out of the draw next to the bed and he applied some disinfectant to them; and covered them to prevent them from getting infected. However, there was one deep one on his forehead. Arthur turned around, stopped one of the nurses who was walking by, and said, "Can you please get me a suture kit?"

He turned back to the boy and asked, "Do you want her to get some pain medication to help with the pain?"

The boy shook his head and said, "No, that is fine. I will be alright without it, thank you."

"Don't be an idiot, just take the medication you don't get any points in my book for being stubborn."

"I am not being stubborn, I don't need it. I am strong, and can do things perfectly fine on my own, I don't need you to worry about me," exclaimed the kid.

Arthur sighed, and said, "Well, too bad I am the doctor and I say that you need it, so nurse please go get the stuff and bring it back to me."

The nurse nodded and headed off to the storage room to grab the kit. Just as Arthur turned around to the kid, he saw the kid was sticking his tongue out at him. Arthur could not believe this kid, one part of Arthur's brain thought, what a little brat; while another part said thought that this kid was amazing for being able to act like this given his situation.

Arthur washed his hands in the sink and by the time that he was done the nurse had come back with the supplies. Arthur took the kit, thanked her, and walked back to the bed. He pulled up a chair, aimed the light at the boys wounds, and started to get the needle ready for use.

As he was doing that he started to talk to the boy, in order to take his mind off of what was going to happen next. "So, where are you from?"

"I am originally from Boston, but I have been living the past few years in England with my father."

"Oh, an American, I thought that you accident was familiar. I visited America once when I was younger."

"Really," the boy said, "Where did you visit?"

"Well, I landed in New York. But, I travelled over the country."

"Cool, did you like it?" asked the boy excitedly.

Arthur smiled, "Yeah, it was a lot of fun; except for the people they were all like you pig headed and annoying."

The boy laughed, and said, "Yeah, Americans are the best so it is tough for other people to get along well with us."

Arthur, just shook his head, smiled and asked, "So, is your whole family over here, or are you just over here with your father?"

The boy looked down, and said, "No, my mother died in childbirth, and my brother died a few years ago. So, it was just me and my father; he worked in the US embassy, but he was killed last night during the bombing. We were trying to get to one of the bomb shelters last night, when a bomb exploded nearby and destroyed part of the building we were going by; several of the bricks fall on my father. The doctors tried to save him, but they said he had already lost a lot of blood and his ribs had punctured his lung, and there was nothing that they could do for him."

"I am sorry to hear that," said Arthur, as he started to stitch up the wound on the boys head. "Is there anyone that we should contact for you?"

The boy winced, and said, "No, there is no one else. Since my older brother died it was just me and my father, I have no other relatives. I have no idea what I am to do now. We just arrived in the country at the beginning of the month, and I just started school a couple of days ago; and I don't have to money to keep paying for it after this semester."

Arthur could not help and feel bad for the boy; as strong as he was trying to act Arthur could tell that he was scared. Not that he could blame the boy he was all alone in a strange country with no one to help him. The kid was being amazing strong for someone who had gone through what he had been through, even if he was a little annoying.

As he put the finishing touches on the stitches he said, "Where are you going to school? Maybe I can call the school and see if they can make some arrangements for you."

"I attending the Westminster School; I just started my first year."

"Oh, that is great, the headmaster there is a friend of my family; if you want to come back to my office I will call him and see if there is anything he can do to make sure you can stay there. Why don't you come back to my office and I will make a few phones call and see what I can do."

Arthur walked over to one of the nurses and explained what was going on; he asked her if she could find someone else to cover his shift while he tried to sort it out. Then, he walked back over to where boy was standing and said, "If you will follow me, we can go back to my office and you can rest, I am sure that you have had a long night."

As they walked through the halls of the hospital to his office Arthur said, "Oh, I forgot to ask you what your name is?"

"Alfred, Alfred Jones."

Notes-

I hoped that you liked the first chapter of my new story. This is going to be a historical fiction, AU story with the countries being citizens from their own country; the story will take place during the years around World War II. While it is going to be one story, the chapters will skip around and focus on the different main characters equally. All of the major Axis and Allies countries will be the main characters along with several other countries, making appearances along the way.

I plan on updating the story every other week as I am currently writing another Mass Effect Fanfiction.

I am still new to this so if you have any tips, comments or ideas I would love to hear them.


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